Microbial species can become highly deleterious to the infected patient, if that individual cannot clear the infection. Infections can also become septic, spreading from an infected organ into the blood stream. These septic infections have a poor outcome for patients.
It is well characterized that plasma-derived IgM can bind to and prevent endotoxin-mediated toxicity towards a patient. This is attributed to the inherent ability or preference of IgM to bind glycans thereby preventing their effects. These toxic effects of endotoxins are typically in response to bacterial death or lysis induced by antibiotics or the immune system of the patient.
In addition, the use of IgM compositions or IgM enriched compositions has been proposed for the treatment of autoimmune diseases or atherosclerosis based on the interaction of IgM with specific hallmarks of said diseases, for example, autoantibodies (Hurez, V. et. al. “Pooled Normal Human Polyspecific IgM Contains Neutralizing Anti-Idioitypes to IgG Autoantibodies of Autoimmune Patients and Protects from Experimental Autoimmune Disease”, Blood, 1997, Vol. 90, No. 10, 4004-4013; and Cesena, H Y. “Immune-modulation by polyclonal IgM treatment reduces atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic apoE −/− mice”, Atherosclerosis, 2012, Vol. 220, 59-65).
Septic conditions and other complications of microbial infections are often associated with an over-stimulation of the immune system, and are often impossible to control due to their exaggerated magnitude and quick evolution. Therefore, there remains a need for effective treatment regimens to reduce, inhibit or prevent over-stimulation of the immune system.